Tomato Kurma / Thakkali Kuruma

Join with us in the EFM - VARIETY RICE SERIES and for more details about the event, click HERE!

Ingredients:

Tomato - 4 (medium size) (roughly chopped)
Onion - 1 (roughly chopped) + Onion - 1/2 (finely chopped)
Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup (Grate 1/4 shell of a full coconut)
Coriander Powder - 3 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1 to 2 tsp
Cumin Powder -  1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Aniseed - 1 tsp
Cloves - 2
Cardamom - 2
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Salt - to taste
Cooking Oil

Cooking Instructions:

Heat  oil in a pan and saute it with aniseed, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. Now add roughly chopped onion, tomato and ginger garlic paste and fry it until onion and tomato become soft. Switch off the flame at this stage and let it cool for a while. Grind this to a smooth paste along with grated coconut by adding a little of water.

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and saute it with aniseed and add the grind paste and fry for a while. Now add coriander powder, turmeric powder, chilly powder and cumin powder, enough amount of salt and add a little of water and cook until the gravy thickens well and the raw smell of the dry powders leaves of the dish. Garnish with coriander leaves and switch off the flame.

Side Dish: Goes well with idli, dosa, chapathi

I adopted this recipe from here and thanks a lot Padma for such a nice recipe!

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Chicken Chukka

 Ingredients :

Chicken - 1/2 kg (clean and cut into cubes)
Pepper Powder - 2 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Cooking Oil - 5 tbsp

Service For : 2 People
Cooking Time : 20 minutes

 
Cooking Instructions :

Add chicken pieces and enough amount of water in a pressure cooker and cook until the Chicken is soft and well done. Do not drain off the excess water (which we call as soup) since you can use it while frying the chicken which gives an added taste.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the pepper powder, chilly powder, cumin powder and garam masala and ginger garlic paste for a while until the raw smell leaves off. But do not burn it off and so take care while u fry the dry powders. Add the cooked chicken along with the soup and required amount of salt to it now and cook until the gravy becomes dry.

It can be served with rice, rotis, naan and briyani.

Join with us in the EFM - VARIETY RICE SERIES and for more details about the event, click HERE!

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EFM - Variety Rice Series!

I am really thankful to all the blogger who participated in the EFM - Oats Series and made it successful!

Now its time to announce the theme for this month. Theme for EFM (Event for the Month) for the month of November is  "VARIETY RICE RECIPES". So, come out with all your  variety rice recipes and am awaiting eagerly for your entries. Variety Rice includes our traditional Indian recipes, continental recipes and everything which use the basic ingredient as Rice.

Remember that you can  send both Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian recipes for Variety Rice Series!

Rules for Participating in the Event:

1. Prepare any type of Variety Rice recipes,and post it in your blog in the month of November 15,2009 to December 15th,2009 with the logo and a link back to this page.

2. If you already have appropriate entry archived, please make sure to re-post it during the period of event with the logo and a link back to this page. Only the entries re-posted during the entry will be accepted.

3. Provide a link back to this announcement page and use the logo without fail.

4. Interested people can Subscribe my blog via E-mail, so that you can receive my recipes to your mail address itself.

5. Email your entry to srikitchen@gmail.com, with "EFM Theme - Variety Rice Series" in the subject line with following details

* Your Name
* Blog Name
* Blog URL
* Recipe Name
* Recipe URL
* Photograph of final dish(200 x 200 Pixels) and it is a must.
* id which you have used to subscribe my blog

6. The deadline for this event is December 15,2009. Please remember that no late entries will be entertained.

7. There is no limit to the number of entries.

8. If you don’t have a blog but wish to participate in this event, send your entries with a picture, your name and recipe to srikitchen@gmail.com before the deadline. I will post the recipes with your picture in my blog and include it in the round-up.

Hope all started to prepare your dishes in your kitchen and let's have a great one stop for variety rice recipes!

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EFM - Oats Series Round Up!

Presenting you the Round Up for the "EFM - Oats Series" and I Welcome you all to the Round Up of Breakfast Series! A surprise awaiting for u all at the end of the final Round Up....!

My sincere thanks to all you wonderful bloggers, who joined me to celebrate this Series and making this one, a successful event. So get ready to bookmark your favorite recipes and try it out in your kitchen.

I received 22 entries for this Oats Series and If i have missed any of your entries, please contact me to my mail id srikitchen@gmail.com, so that i can update the missing entries.

Here is what you have been looking forward to…

From the top, left to right:

1.  Lowfat Eggless Banana Oatmeal Muffins from Divya Vikram

2. Banana Oat & Wheat Muffins from Spicebuds

3.  Oat Bran N Banana-Applesauce Cocoa Brownie from cool Lassi(e)

4. Eggless Banana Walnut & Apricot Muffin from Muskaan Shah

5. Eggless Oatflour & Sesame Cookies from PriyaSuresh

6. Oats Crackers from PriyaSuresh

7. Eggless Quick Oatmeal Cookies from PriyaSuresh

8. Stuffed Rajma Paratha from PriyaSuresh

9. Cheesy Spinach & Oats Swirl Buns  from PriyaSuresh

10. Cheesy Oats Paratha from PriyaSuresh

11. Baked Oats Crusted Oats & Veggies Patties from PriyaSuresh

12. Eggless Chocolate & Oats Cookies from PriyaSuresh

13. Granola Breakfast Bars from Divya Vikram

14. Oat, Fruit & Nut Bars from cool Lassi(e)

15. Oatmeal Wheat Bread from Divya Vikram

16. Oat, Oat Bran and Chickpea Burgers from cool Lassi(e)

17. Raisins and Brazilnut Crunchies from Jayasri

18.  Oats Sweet Puttu from Usha Nandhini

19. Eggless Nutritious Oats Fruit & Nut Scones from Muskaan Shah

20. Stuffed Oats and Wheat pancake from Pari

21. Protein Packed Vegan Rajma & Oats Patty from Muskaan Shah

22. Oats Burger from usha Nandhini

Undoubtedly, the First Place goes to Priya,for sending maximum of 8 entries to the event! Enjoy it and Congrats Priya!

And the Second Place goes to 3 participants Muskaan Shah, Cool Lassi(e) and Divya Vikram and they all has send 3 entries for the event and  Congrats to you three People! 

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My 300th Post and Gulab Jamuns to Celebrate It !!!

Wow, I can't believe I have reached 300 posts in 1 year and 8 months of blogging! It's kind of cool to think that I've been blogging this long and I hope all of you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have cooking and posting them! I read each and every one of your comments and appreciate them all. I've learned quite a bit about cooking just from reading all the different posts from everyone. You guys are also some of the most hilarious people out there!

At last, I made it! I wouldn't think I would write so much about food. Thanks for all you readers and food bloggers for inspirations, and a special thanks to my Hubby, backbone of this blog and mine and He is the only man who inspired me a lot to start a cooking blog to make the collective cooking all possible and Thanks a lot to you my Darling because without you its not possible. Love you always!

I like to give this "ROSE BOUQUET AWARD" to all my blogger Friends who made this milestone to happen! Please Accept it!

Coming to the recipe, I adopted this recipe from vahrehvah.com

Ingredients:

For Dough:

Milk Powder - 2 Cups

Dalda /Vegetable Shortening - 2 tsp

All purpose Flour / Maida - 2 tsp

Baking Powdr - 1/2 tsp

Sooji / Semolina - 2 tsp

Milk - 2 tsp or as you require to form a dough

Cooking Oil / Ghee - to deep fry

For Sugar Syrup:

Sugar - 2 cups

Water - 2 cups

Milk - 2 tsp

Cooking Instructions:

Let's make the sugar syrup first.  Mix 2 cups of Sugar and 2 Cups of water in a deep pan and bring it to boil on medium flame. When the sugar starts boiling well, switch off the flame. If you find any impurities in sugar, then add just 2 tsp of milk to the sugar syrup when it starts to boil and stir well and leave it undisturbed for few seconds and now you can see that the impurities in sugar will start to float on the top of the syrup and stick to the sides of the pan. Now with the help of a spatula or spoon, remove the impurities and switch off the flame when the sugar syrup comes to a rolling boil.  Keep this sugar syrup aside.

Take 2 cups of milk powder in a bowl and add 2 tp of shortening to it and just mix it well to make it a bread crumbs consistency. Add maida, sooji and baking powder to it and mix well. Now just sprinkle a little milk to form a smooth dough. Keep this dough undisturbed for 10 minutes. Make equal number of small balls out of the dough by gently rolling them between the palms of your hands.

Heat the oil in a wide pan and deep fry the jamuns in batches. The jamuns must be gently stirred to evenly cook on all sides. It should be cooked until it is golden brown on all sides. Once it is cooked, put the jamuns in sugar syrup.

Will see you all again with the Round Up of EFM - Oats Series!

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Paasipayaru Vadai / Green Gram Vadai

Join with us in EFM - Oats SERIES! Rush up to send in your entries. For more details about the event, click HERE!

Ingredients:

Paasi Payaru / Pachai Payaru/ Green Gram - 1 cup
Bengal Gram / Kadalai Parupu - 4 tbsp
Rice Flour - 4 tbsp
Onion – 1 (finely chopped)
Green Chilly – 2 (finely chopped)
Curry Leaves – few
Salt - to taste
Cooking Oil

Cooking Instructions:

Soak Green gram and Bengal gram in a bowl of water for an hour. After an hour drain the excess water and grind it little coarsely without adding water. Mix rice flour, chopped onions, chillies and curry leaves and enough salt to the grinded flour thoroughly. Divide the flour into equal number of small size of balls.

Heat oil in a pan. Take a ball and flatten it with the palm of your hands. Slip the vada in oil and let it tocook in simmer flame itself. When one side is cooked, turn it to the other side and let it to cook well. Vada is ready to serve. You can provide this healthy snack with a cup of hot coffee!

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Parota

Join with us in EFM - Oats SERIES! Rush up to send in your entries. For more details about the event, click HERE!

Ingredients:

Maida / All purpose flour - 4 cups
Water - 1 cup
Cooking Oil - 1 tbsp ( for kneading)
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Cooking Oil - 1/2 cup ( to cook parota)

 

Cooking Instructions:

Mix maida, sugar, salt, 1 tbsp oil and enough amount of water and make a smooth dough. Spread 1 tbsp of oil over the dough and cover the dough with a damp cloth and keep it aside for about 2 hours. After an interval of 2 hours, Take a small portion of dough in your hand and Keep the dough in between the index finger and thumb and press it. You will get a lemon size ball from the dough. Repeat the same process until you finish the dough. Again cover those balls with a damp cloth and leave it for one more hour. More the time we leave the dough undisturbed, more easy for us to roll out parotas and parotas will be soft too.

Now take a lemon size dough, apply oil in your hands and the rolling board and pin. Now spread the dough as thin as possible and as large in size as possible. Take the dough from one of its corner side and fold like saree pleats and make a spiral shape from the pleats shape. Repeat the same for the whole dough and keep it aside for 15 more minutes. After 15 minutes, take the dough and just press it by your greased hand till you get a disc shape. Do not roll it out with the rolling pin.

Heat the tawa and Cook the parotas on both sides. Once u finish cooking all the parotas, take 3 of parotas in a plate and keep it ion between both of ur palms and just clap your hands. This process will make the parotas more flaky. Our Parota is ready to serve. I served it along with chicken gravy.

Side Dish: Chicken Chalna, Veg Kuruma and non veg gravies.


I followed the recipe step by step from Kamala's blog. She has explained in a detailed manner with the pictures how to cook parota and really it came out too good when i executed the process in my kitchen.

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Spicy Baby Potatoes

Join with us in EFM - Oats SERIES! Rush up to send in your entries. For more details about the event, click HERE!

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes –1/4 kg
Onion - 2 (finely chopped)
Sambhar Powder - 1 1/2 tsp ( i used Aachi Brand)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garlic - 5 pods (finely minced)
Curry leaves –A sprig
Water - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Cooking Oil - 2 tbsp

Cooking Instructions:

Wash the potatoes and pressure cook it for 2-3 whistles. Once it is cooled down, peel off the skin and keep it aside. Let the potatoes be rightly cooked not too hard, not too soft. Add sambhar powder, turmeric powder aand salt to the potatoes and sprinkle a very little of water and mix it well so the masala coats evenly on all the potatoes. Let it marinate for at least half an hour.

 Heat oil in a pan and saute it with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Now add onion and garlic to it and fry until onions become soft. Now add the potatoes to it and fry well. Sprinkle some more water, if necessary. Let it cook in a simmer flame for about 15 minutes until the potatoes become dry and crispy. Now it is ready to serve!

Side Dish: Hot Rice, Lemon Rice and Tomato Rice

Thanks a lot Bharathy for your lovely recipe and her recipe is here and actually i adopted this recipe from her blog!

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Aloo Matar Masala / Potata and Peas Gravy

Join with us in EFM - Oats SERIES! Rush up to send in your entries. For more details about the event, click HERE! 

Ingredients:

Potato - 3
Fresh Green peas - 50 gms
Onion - 1 (lengthwise chopped)
Tomato - 2 (large in size - roughly chopped)
Aniseed - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 2 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste -  1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Leaves - 2 tsp (finely chopped - to garnish)
Salt - to taste
Cooking oil

Cooking Instructions:

Wash and clean the potatoes and pressure cook for 3 whistles. Do not overcook it, since the gravy won't taste good. Once it is cooked, peel off the skin and cut into small cubes.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and add onions to it and fry till it becomes golden brown and add tomatoes at this time and cook for few seconds. Switch off the flame and let the mixture to cool. Once it is cooled, grind this mixture to a fine paste.

 Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and  saute it with aniseed. Add the grind paste to it and saute for few seconds. Add ginger garlic paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, chilly powder,  and garam masala and fry it until the raw small leaves off the dish. Now add green peas and required amount of salt and a cup of water and cover the pan with a lid. Let it cook for 5 minutes and by this time the green peas will get cooked. Open the lid and add the cooked potatoes to it and let it cook until the masala coats over the potatoes and the gravy thickens to the required consistency. Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.

Side Dish: This gravy tastes too god with chapati, naan and poori and even with dosas.

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Eggless Black Forest Cake for My Birthday!

Join with us in EFM - Oats SERIES! Rush up to send in your entries. For more details about the event, click HERE!

Am planning for the past 2 days to bake a cake for my birthday which falls on 27th September (yes, TODAY is My BIRTHDAY!)  but had guts to play with a simple  recipe, since its only the second attempt for me to bake cake. So i don't want to take risk with a tedious cake recipe. I started to browse for cake recipes and bookmarked a few. I asked my hubby which cake recipe to kick in. At once, he answered me let's order for a cake in bakery shop, instead of baking at home and added that he is the only one who has to eat cake whether it comes out good or  bad. The reason is he got afraid of my baking skill. But i refused to order a cake.

I strictly told him that I will bake cake for my birthday and its going to be a thrilling experience for me and he too accepted for it. I went for shopping along with him, day before yesterday evening, to purchase the ingredients required for the recipe.  Yesterday morning we decided to bake "Eggless Black Forest Cake" and i googled in again for the recipe and selected Divya's recipe. Her recipe goes here. After i had my lunch, i started to bake the cake. My husband too helped me and my kiddo was sleeping while am baking. so i didn't get any hindrance from my kiddo side.

i baked the cake in 2 batched since i have a small tin and when the first batch came out successful, i was really very happy and felt very confident and started baking the second batch and meanwhile prepared for icing too. My kiddo got up and was excited to see the first batch of cake. He asked me why am i baking cake and i told him that tomorrow is Mom's birthday! Immediately, he sang "Happy Birthday to you, Mummy!" and i told her to wish me tomorrow. Then he got very curious what am i doing and was questioning me for each and every action of mine. He got excited while am preparing for icing. He asked me let him to beat the icing ingredients. Cute 3 years old kiddo was holding the electric beater for the whole process until the cream forms the soft peak. He didn't at all let me to touch the beater though i was telling him that your hands will pain if you hold beater for long time. He refused to give it to me and did his job successfully in cute way. I gave him a big clap for the help he did for me, which he expects from me usually. He felt very proud that he has done something in preparing cake. Thanks Dear!

The cake really came out too good and tasty and i once again thank Divya a lot for her wonderful recipe!

Coming to the recipe.....

Ingredients Required for Cake:

Condensed Milk – 400 gms
Butter – 125 gms
All Purpose Flour – 225 gms
Cocoa Powder – 4 tbsp
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Baking Soda – 1 tsp
Aerated Cola – 200ml(I used Coco Cola)

Baking Instructions:

Grease the baking tin with ghee and dust with flour. Sift together all purpose flour,cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda for 3 times and keep this flour mix aside.

Microwave butter for 1 minute on 100% temperature. Let it cool. Add milkmaid to it and beat well. Add the flour mix to it alternating with cola till flour mix and cola are finished.

Pour this mix into the greased baking tin and bake for 30-40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
I baked the cake in 2 batches since i have small tin.

Outcome of the Cake Baked in 2 Batches:

Ingredients –For the Sugar syrup

Sugar – ½ cup or 8 tbsp
Water – ½ cup

In a thick bottom pan,mix sugar and water and bring it to boil till the sugar melts.Keep aside to cool.

Ingredients –For the cream

Fresh Cream – 300 ml
Powdered Sugar – 4-5 tbsp
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Keep cream and the beater blades in the freezer for about half an hour. Add sugar and essence to the chilled cream. Beat well till the cream is thick and forms soft peak. Keep refrigerated till use.

Ingredients for Filling and Garnish

Cherries - 1 cup
Chocolate Bar - 1 (Shave the chocolate and refrigerate it till use)

Assembling the Cake:

Cut the cake into 3 layers horizontally. Keep one layer of the cake on the serving plate. Sprinkle 3-4 tablespoons of sugar syrup on it. Now spread 2-3 tablespoons of whipped cream on top of the cake. Add the chopped cherries on top. Repeat with other layers. Cover the cake completely with whipped cream on all sides and the top. Level the top and sides with a broad spatula dipped in chilled water. Decorate the top with chocolate shavings,halved cherries and silver beads. Keep chilled in the fridge till use.

Myself and my kid together cut the cake today morning and enjoyed the taste of the cake! My kiddo wished me with a Greeting Card and a small gift. I was so excited to see both of it. Thank you, my little Sweet Heart!

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EFM - Oats Series!

I am really thankful to all the blogger who participated in the EFM - Breakfast Series and made it successful!

Now its time to announce the theme for this month. Theme for EFM (Event for the Month) for the month of September - October is "OATS RECIPES". So, come out with all your OATS recipes and am awaiting eagerly for your entries.

Rules for Participating in the Event:

1. Prepare recipes with OATS, and post it in your blog between September 27th,2009 to October 31st,2009 with the logo and a link back to this page.

2. If you already have appropriate entry archived, please make sure to re-post it during the period of event with the logo and a link back to this page. Only the entries re-posted during the event will be accepted.

3. Provide a link back to this announcement page and use the logo without fail.

4. Interested people can Subscribe my blog via E-mail, so that you can receive my recipes to your mail address itself.

5. Email your entry to srikitchen@gmail.com, with "EFM Theme - Oats Series" in the subject line with following details

* Your Name
* Blog Name
* Blog URL
* Recipe Name
* Recipe URL
* Photograph of final dish(200 x 200 Pixels) and it is a must.
* id which you have used to subscribe my blog

6. The deadline for this event is October 31,2009. Please remember that no late entries will be entertained.

7. There is no limit to the number of entries.

8. If you don’t have a blog but wish to participate in this event, send in your entries with a picture, your name and recipe to srikitchen@gmail.com before the deadline. I will post the recipes with your picture in my blog and include it in the round-up.

Hope all started to prepare your dishes in your kitchen and let's have a great one stop for oats recipes!

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